Monday, April 4, 2016

Opening Day Trade Package!

The Red Sox will be kicking off their 2016 season in just a few short hours with a 4:10pm EST start time against the Cleveland Indians. Seems like the perfect day to post the contents of an all-Red Sox trade package I received a while back from Jeff at Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum.

For starters, Jeff did some serious damage to my 2016 Topps Series 1 team set. I've yet to buy so much as a single pack of this stuff. I know that makes me a bad collector, but the set is just not for me. I still want the Red Sox cards though, of course.

Rusney Castillo has made the Opening Day 25-man roster, but hasn't exactly lived up to the hype that surrounded him when he first signed. In 80 games last year he barely batted above .250, and chipped in with just 5 home runs and 29 RBI. Another campaign like that and you're going to start hearing the word "bust" thrown around a lot more on New England sports talk radio.

Ryan Hanigan is one of two backstops to make the Opening Day roster, and will be splitting time with youngster Blake Swihart. I'd assume at this point that Swihart will see the majority of the action with Hanigan filling in as needed, but you never know.

Here's a guy who did not make the cut coming out of Spring Training. Henry made 11 starts last season, and ended the year 4-4 with an ERA over 4.50. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we'll see him make some spot starts this season though.

Super utility man, and the squad's lone All-Star Game representative last year, Brock Holt is back. Depending on how things go with Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, I could see Brock getting in plenty of time in the infield. He's more than capable of patrolling the outfield as well, and will likely make some appearances there. Brock also has one of the more interesting photos of the Red Sox from 2016 Topps Series 1.

Of course Dustin Pedroia is back for his 11th straight season with the Sox. I can still clearly remember him coming up in 2006, as well as struggling mightily at the outset of the 2007 season. I'm definitely getting old!

Jeff also tossed in a couple of the Berger's Best reprints from this year's flagship set to accompany the base cards. This Ted Williams definitely strikes a chord, as the original is one of my most prized Red Sox cards:

Here's the other Berger's Best card, Daisuke's 2007 Topps RC.

Moving away from the brand new stuff now, how about this insert of Tris Speaker from 2010 Topps? No idea how this one escaped me for so long, what a great photograph! I love the almost ghostly image of the other player lurking way in the background.

When I first got back into collecting, relics were still a pretty big deal. Nowadays you can typically find them for a buck or so. I still really love the Allen & Ginter framed relics like this one. In fact, this card got me looking and I ended up picking up one or two more on COMC to go with it.

I've posted a few of the Topps Tek cards from 2014 and 2015 here before, and generally speaking am a big fan of anything acetate. Jeff hit a real home run by giving me my first taste of some of the older Tek sets in this particular delivery. This Mo Vaughn hails from the 1998 set.

And this Pedro is from the 2000 set. I'm not sure I'm ready to leap into these with too much intensity given that there appear to be dozens of different patterns for each card, but for now I'm just grateful to have an example from each set in my Red Sox collection.

Getting near the end of the package now. Jeff gave me my very first exposure to 2015 Panini Elite Extra Edition with half a dozen prospect cards. Let's see where each of these guys is at now.

Austin Rei was taken in last year's draft, so it's still early. He's 22 years old and should be playing somewhere within the minor league system this year, though I'm not entirely sure at what level yet.

Rafael Devers had a decent season in A-ball last year with the Greenville Drive, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him make the jump to AA-ball for 2016. If he can progress quickly there's certainly room at third base within the organization.

Javier Guerra was born in Panama, and also spent last season with the single-A Greenville Drive. He displayed some pretty good pop at the plate, and like Devers I'd assume will be promoted to the AA Portland SeaDogs at some point this year.

Here's a name most Sox fans are familiar with, if only because he was dealt in the trade that brought closer Craig Kimbrel to Boston in the off-season. Manuel rose to AA last year within the Red Sox organization, we'll see how he does out on the West coast!

Another name I definitely recognize, last year's first round draft pick (7th overall) Andrew Benintendi! This is just my third card of Andrew to date. I would guess that he will start the season at single-A, but AA is certainly a possibility as well.

Last but certainly not least for the Elite Extra Edition cards, slugging second baseman Yoan Moncada. There is a ton of potential here, enough so that Boston invested $31 Million, which is no small amount even for a team with a payroll like the Red Sox have. There's an outside chance we could see Moncada taking some hacks in Fenway later this summer, though most pundits still think he has another year of seasoning in the minor leagues ahead of him.

Last card for today, my one and only autographed card of Manuel Margot. On card no less! What a great throw-in, I certainly appreciate this one. It pairs nicely with the one other autograph I have from this release, which I'm saving for a future Signature Sundays post.

Jeff, thanks for the cards my man! I have a small stack of Braves set aside for you, but felt it was a little lacking given what you sent me. I picked out a couple singles on COMC to hopefully level things out a bit, and as soon as that order arrives I'll get everything shipped out to you. In the meantime I hope the Braves aren't as disappointing this year as they're predicted to be!